German Published Patent No. 44 14 216 discusses an object recognition system that may be mounted on a vehicle to recognize on the basis of a person's face whether that person is authorized for that vehicle. For this purpose, data may be loaded from a memory to compare this data with the person's face in order to determine whether this person is recognized as authorized. This device may be used to determine whether a person is to be allowed to drive the vehicle.
German Published Patent Application No. 197 28 226 discusses how settings are made in a vehicle according to a user profile. The settings may involve an air conditioning system, the engine, transmission, seat and immobilizer. The person may be recognized by entries or biometric methods. European Published Patent Application No. 89,308 discusses a device which may provide an avatar for communication in a vehicle. The avatar may evaluate a driver's entries and actions and create patterns from them. A user profile may be derived from these patterns. Then the actions of the avatar may be set. A biometric recognition of the driver may be described, so that then the avatar delivers the acknowledgment that the driver has been recognized. German Published Patent Application No. 381 74 95 discusses a vehicle having electronically controllable functions adjustable in a user-specific manner, the user's settings may be recognized and stored as his typical behavior, and this user-specific data may be used for the settings as soon as the corresponding memory is connected to a processor. The user-specific settings may pertain in particular to the program selection or broadcast station settings and control of a radio receiver. European Published Patent Application No. 870,654 discusses a device and a method for driver-specific setting of vehicle devices. The setting parameters of the vehicle devices may be stored in a local processor as a setting parameter data set and may be delivered as action signals to the device objects via a control and/or regulation device. Optionally, sensor signals may be fed back into the control and/or regulation device. German Published Patent Application No. 196 31 414 discusses a device for recording the retinal reflex pattern and additional images superimposed in the eye.